


Sesame Street’s Groundbreaking Triads

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: All pairings are minor - Freeform, Article style, Humor, Interracial Relationship, Multi, Polyamory, Triad Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 14:16:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14672829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: An idea of how Sesame Street would look in Triad Verse. In the style of a real world article talking about Sesame Street as a fictitious show.





	Sesame Street’s Groundbreaking Triads

**Sesame Street’s Groundbreaking Triads**

_ReleasingmyInsanity  
_ Associated Press

When _Sesame Street_ began in 1969, it made history within the first few minutes of its inaugural episode. When Gordon (then played by Matt Robinson) introduced young Sally to “my wife Susan” (Dr. Loretta Long) and “my husband Bob” (Bob McGrath). Nothing like this had ever been seen on children’s television before. Not only did black people and white people co-exist on the same street, but within the same marriage as well.

With Loving Day still fresh in the minds of America’s parents, no other children’s show would have dared to show such a relationship. And yet Sesame Street presented an interracial triad as normal. Something that no one would bat an eye about today, but was considered shocking at the time.

The trend of interracial marriages continued in the show’s 19th season when Maria (Sonia Manzano) and her long-time boyfriend David (Northern Calloway) found love with Maria’s fellow fix-it shop owner Luis (Emilio Delgado) and the three were wed in a beautiful season finale.

 _Sesame Street_ was also one of the few shows in those days, and the only one aimed at children, to present a same-sex triad. Although it was rarely mentioned, Mr. Hooper the store owner (played by original cast member Will Lee), Mr. Macintosh the fruit seller (stage manager Chet O’Brian), and Willy the hot dog vendor (Muppet builder Kermit Love) were a triad. Something that is still unusual to see represented in media today. But as with the interracial triads, this too was presented as normal.

Sometimes we forget what an important role _Sesame Street_ played in shaping our world and our expectations of what life could be like. By showing triads outside of the norm as something ordinary, not requiring special focus or explanation, they challenged us to think outside the box and explore new versions of how the world can be.

**Author's Note:**

> Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters A and T and by the number 7. 
> 
> Yes I did just humorously declare myself to be part of the Associated Press in this AU.
> 
> It’s up to you whether Gordon/Susan/Bob is a love match or if Bob is Susan and Gordon’s beard and just pretending to be their third so that they can be married.
> 
> Don’t ask me what Richard and Mildred Loving’s third would be named or what their race would be. I’m not going to make up real-life OCs. That’s too weird for me. I just figured that Loving Day would still happen in triad verse.
> 
> Maria/Luis/David forever. 
> 
> I’m assuming that you *can* have a same-sex triad but it would have been rare until recently. And people within such a triad would have been rather looked-down on. (“How are you going to have kids that way?” “What, you think you’re too good for a woman/man?”)
> 
> Sesame Street *did* play a part in shaping our world and I assume it would have done so in triad-verse as well.


End file.
